Asia Team championships: Indian men defeat China

K. Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram and H.S. Prannoy won their respective singles matches to give India victory over China.
Indian men on Thursday defeated  China 3-2 in the men’s category of the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Hyderabad.

India won three singles but lost the two doubles matches. With the victory over China India’s men  qualify to the quarterfinals of the tournament.

In the first match, Srikanth, world No.9, gave a wininng start to his team’s with a terrific 2-0 (21-11, 21-17) win over China’s Houwei Tian.

“I am very happy to have won the match against Zi Liang Derek Wong of Singapore and I am sure to maintain this form for the other ties with China. I am also happy that our team has won against Singapore 5-0 and I am sure team India will perform well in the other matches also,” Srikanth said.

In the second match between Ajay Jayaram won the match by 22-20, 15-21, 21-18 against  China’s Zhengming Wang.

 “It’s a different feeling to play for the country. It’s always great to beat a higher ranked Chinese player,” Jayaram said after the match.”

In the third single match, India’s H.S. Prannoy, ranked 27, needed just not much time to defeat his rival Yuqi Shi and won the match by 21-14 and 21-10.

India’s national coach Pullela Gopichand was happy with the win over China in the team event.

He said,“I am very happy and thrilled to see our men’s team pull off a superb victory over China. I am confident our team will maintain the same tempo and momentum and laurels for our country.”

India lost both the doubles matches against China. Manu Attri-Sumeeth Reddy lost to  Junhui Li-Zihan Qiu 20-22, 11-21. In the second doubles match, Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Akshay Dewalkar lost to Yilv Wang-Wen Zhang 10-21, 18-21.